The dining-room had, in like manner, one west and
two north windows, the latter commanding a grand view over the green
meadow-land below, dotted with round knolls, and rising into blue
hills beyond. We became proud of counting the villages and church
towers we could see from thence.
There was a still older portion, more ancient than the square corps
de logis, and built of the cream-coloured stone of the country. It
was at the south-eastern angle, where the ground began sloping so
near the house that this wing--if it may so be called--containing
two good-sized rooms nearly on a level with the upper floor, had
nothing below but some open stone vaultings, under which it was only
just possible for my tall brothers to stand upright, at the
innermost end. These opened into the cellars which, no doubt,
belonged to the fifteenth-century structure. There seemed to have
once been a door and two or three steps to the ground, which rose
very close to the southern end; but this had been walled up. The
rooms had deep mullioned windows east and west, and very handsome
groined ceilings, and were entered by two steps down from the
gallery round the upper part of the hall. There was a very handsome
double staircase of polished oak, shaped like a Y, the stem of which
began just opposite the original front door--making us wonder if
people knew what draughts were in the days of Queen Anne, and
remember Madame de Maintenon's complaint that health was sacrificed
to symmetry.
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